Torn Between Two Lovers

Putting fantasies aside for a moment, I’m torn between two loves at the very same moment, sitting here wondering what comes next.

That wonderment isn’t unusual. There isn;yt a day, and I don’t think there hasn’t been a day that I can recall when that wonder wasn’t in abundance.

Now that rates have risen for the second time in 3 months and as it seems that there is some ambivalence about continuing that post-election rally, I’m torn between the financing goals that appeal to me the most.

One is keeping my money safe and the other is keeping my money at work.

I love both of those and I think I love them equally.

I feel better when I have cash and I feel better when I can use that cash to generate more cash.

With the market pretty close to its all time highs, I’ve been content seeing my cash position rise, in the belief that after a long period of new highs begetting more new highs, there is going to be an unpleasant surprise.

But I’ve been just as happy to spend some money to make money.

Even more merry-making has been 2017’s opportunity to put some of those losers to work, even if it only means picking up an additional $0.10 per share on a particular trade.

Those dimes really do add up and the pain is a little easier to take, although sometimes you do shake your head over how hard you have to work for that dime, especially if you didn’t want to lose those shares to assignment.

I’m also going to throw a third love into the mix.

I love following investing rules.

I’ve never been one to follow organizational rules in my previous professional life, but that was more designed as a means of motivating people.

When it comes to investing, I like the consistency that rules offer.

One of the rules that I’m willing to break and have broken, is not having more than 3 lots of any individual stock at a time.

I broke that rule last week when I bought a fourth lot of the Gold Miners ETF.

Another rule that I’m likely to break today or maybe next week is to buy additional shares of a stock and combine them with a previous lot and sell strikes at the blended average price, instead of managing them as individual positions.

That’s something that I used to do before “Option to Profit,” but really couldn’t do anymore once there were subscribers in the mix.

The reason for that was that if there were those that didn’t purchase the new lot of shares, they wouldn’t be able to then sell calls at the lower strike. In essence, that would feel, to me, at least, like abandonment.

Now, however, I don’t really care and my focus is on the first two loves.

I’m willing to spend money to make money.

In this case, I’m thinking of adding more shares of Marathon Oil if it stays in the $15.50 range, doubling down on the lot picked up via put assignment at $16.50.

That particular lot, thanks to its premiums and dividend, only needs to collect $15.60 at sale to be at break-even.

As a result, if doubling down at $15.50, the average share price would be $16.00, with an effective $0.20 profit (the $0.40 profit on the original shares is now spread over twice the number of shares, resulting in the per share profit being only $0.20).

Then, however, comes the potential fun of selling $16.00 calls and adding to the profit.

I feel, that at this stage in my life, my heart is big enough to satisfy all of those loves.